Candide · Chapter
How the Portuguese Made a Beautiful Auto-Da-Fé, to Prevent Any Further Earthquakes; and How Candide Was Publicly Whipped explained
After the Lisbon earthquake, the Portuguese authorities decide to hold an auto-da-fé to prevent further quakes.
What happens
After the Lisbon earthquake, the Portuguese authorities decide to hold an auto-da-fé to prevent further quakes. Pangloss is hanged, Candide is whipped, and two others are burned. Candide despairs at the cruelty of the world, but an old woman approaches him and offers comfort.
Themes in this chapter
Critique of Religious Hypocrisy
The auto-da-fé is portrayed as a cruel and absurd ritual meant to prevent earthquakes, highlighting the hypocrisy and irrationality of religious authorities.
Suffering and Human Cruelty
Candide endures public whipping and witnesses the burning of innocent people and the hanging of Pangloss, exemplifying the arbitrary and extreme cruelty of humans.
Characters to notice
- Candide
Whipped in cadence during the auto-da-fé, then left bleeding and despairing.
- Pangloss
Hanged during the auto-da-fé for speaking his mind.
- The Old Woman
Approaches Candide after the auto-da-fé and tells him to take courage and follow her.
Key passages
“After the earthquake had destroyed three-fourths of Lisbon, the sages of that country could think of no means more effectual to prevent utter ruin than to give the people a beautiful auto-da-fé; for it had been decided by the University of Coimbra, that the burning of a few people alive by a slow fire, and with great ceremony, is an infallible secret to hinder the earth from quaking.”
After the Lisbon earthquake, the wise men decided that a public burning of heretics would stop the earth from shaking.
Satirizes the superstitious and cruel reasoning of religious authorities.
“Candide was whipped in cadence while they were singing; the Biscayner, and the two men who had refused to eat bacon, were burnt; and Pangloss was hanged, though that was not the custom.”
Candide was whipped rhythmically as the choir sang; the others were burned, and Pangloss was hanged, which was unusual.
Highlights the arbitrary and ritualized violence of the auto-da-fé.
“If this is the best of possible worlds, what then are the others?”
If this world is the best possible, then the others must be even worse.
Candide begins to doubt Pangloss's optimistic philosophy.